This invention relates to electrostatic developer compositions. More particularly, it relates to liquid developer compositions of improved storage and thermal stability.
Conventional liquid negative developers for use in electrostatic copying machines consist of an organic nonpolar liquid carrier having a low dielectric constant and a high resistivity containing a toner comprising a solid particulate resinous fixative and a pigment or pigment system. A charge control agent and one or more substances for enhancing the shelf-life of the composition and for maintaining the various solid components as a homogeneously dispersed phase are also included. When a substrate containing a latent electrostatic image is brought into contact with the developer composition, charged components of the developer are attracted preferentially to the oppositely charged latent image and subsequently fixed, typically by the application of heat to evaporate the carrier, to produce a permanent visible image.
In an ideal developing composition, the fixative and pigment should be intimately associated, of uniform small particle size, and should be uniformly charged. This would result in uniform depletion of the toner as images are developed sequentially and in uniform density of the successively produced copies. In practice, this ideal property of developing compositions has been difficult to achieve. The static charge imparted to the solid particles in such a composition by the charge control agent is typically a function of the chemical properties of the agent and the toner particles and of the surface area of the particles.
Known negative charge agents for liquid developer systems consist of polymers that contain large amounts of electron accepting groups (acid character) such as halogens, e.g., polyvinyl chloride and chlorinated polyethylenes, polypropylenes, or polyisoprenes. These associate with the resinous fixer and pigment components in the developer. In an electric field the charge agent and associated pigment and fixer (latex) take on a net negative charge and migrate to anodic areas of the latent image-bearing substrate.
The use of a separate polymeric component of this type as a charge control agent has an adverse effect on the stability of the developer with respect to changes in temperature in use or storage. More particularly, if the developer is subjected to a temperature substantially above room temperature, the solubility of the charge control agent in the carrier is increased. It has been discovered that this has the effect of allowing the polymer to relax thereby reducing steric hindrance to the uptake of negative charge, with the result that the electronegativity of the developer increases. When such a developer is used the resulting image exhibits a halo effect, that is, the edges of the image taper off to background rather than exhibit a sharp cut-off. Furthermore, upon cooling the developer back down to the temperature at which it is designed to operate, the charge control agent tends to separate itself from other components resulting in a deleterious reduction in homogeneity.
The majority of liquid developer compositions contain vehicle-soluble charge control agents, and since the charge control agent is depleted to a lesser extent than the fixative and pigment, as successive copies are produced the net charge on particles remaining in the developer varies in a complicated way resulting in variations in the image density of the successively produced copies. While this depletion effect can be substantially reduced by employing a carrier insoluble charge control agent such as those disclosed in copending U.S. application, Ser. No. 109,393 filed Jan. 3, 1980, now U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,306,009, and 103,544 filed Dec. 13, 1979, now abandoned, developers using such an approach are nevertheless subject to the thermal instability problem noted above.